Greenwich executive accused in Madoff scam pleads guilty

Associated Press

Published 10:06 pm, Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Photo: Larry Neumeister, Associated Press

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Greenwich resident Paul Konigsberg leaves federal court in New York on Tuesday, June 24, 2014 after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy and two counts of falsifying books and records in a co-operation deal with the government. The 78-year-old Konigsberg, an accounting firm executive who worked for Bernard Madoff, told the court he was not aware of Madoff's "horrific and evil Ponzi scheme." Madoff is serving a 150-year prison sentence after admitting his fraud in 2009. (AP Photo/Larry Neumeister) less

Greenwich resident Paul Konigsberg leaves federal court in New York on Tuesday, June 24, 2014 after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy and two counts of falsifying books and records in a co-operation deal with the ... more

Photo: Larry Neumeister, Associated Press

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Defendant Paul Konigsberg, left, and attorney Reed Brodsky leave federal court in New York on Tuesday, June 24, 2014 after he pled guilty to conspiracy and two counts of falsifying books and records in a co-operation deal with the government. The 78-year-old Konigsberg, an accounting firm executive who worked for Bernard Madoff, told the court he was not aware of Madoff's "horrific and evil Ponzi scheme." Madoff is serving a 150-year prison sentence after admitting his fraud in 2009. (AP Photo/Larry Neumeister) less

Defendant Paul Konigsberg, left, and attorney Reed Brodsky leave federal court in New York on Tuesday, June 24, 2014 after he pled guilty to conspiracy and two counts of falsifying books and records in a ... more

Photo: Larry Neumeister, Associated Press

Greenwich executive accused in Madoff scam pleads guilty

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NEW YORK -- A senior partner at a New York accounting firm pleaded guilty to criminal charges Tuesday in a cooperation deal with the government, saying he unwittingly played a role in financier Bernard Madoff's "horrific and evil Ponzi scheme."

Greenwich resident Paul Konigsberg, a 78-year-old accounting firm executive, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and two counts of falsifying books and records in federal court in Manhattan. He also agreed to forfeit $4.4 million in cash and property. Sentencing was set for Sept. 19.

Prosecutors said he was the only person outside the Madoff family to have held an ownership interest in Madoff's private investment business before it was exposed in 2008 as a gigantic decades-old fraud.

Madoff, now serving a 150-year prison sentence, admitted in 2009 that claims he managed up to $68 billion for investors were false because he had squandered all but a few hundred million dollars of roughly $20 billion entrusted to him.

Konigsberg told U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain that he sometimes agreed with Madoff's employees to return trading statements prepared for investors to Madoff's firm so that the employees could change information about securities that had been traded. He said he did not know, though, that the trades that were substituted had not occurred.

"I was not aware of Madoff's horrific and evil Ponzi scheme," Konigsberg said.

Konigsberg, of Greenwich, was a senior tax partner at the accounting firm Konigsberg Wolf & Co. when he did work for some of Madoff's most important clients, beginning in at least the early 1990s, Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Schwartz said.

He said that by the time the fraud was discovered, Konigsberg handled more than 300 of Madoff's private securities accounts.